In 1983 Borland changed the face of PC programming with the release of Turbo Pascal 1.0. Before that, languages were expensive, unwieldy, command-line driven affairs which ensured that programming remained the exclusive preserve of programmers. Borland provided an environment which integrated a full-screen editor with a lightning fast compiler at an unbelievably low price; suddenly programming was accessible to ordinary people.

However, programming for Windows has remained entirely within the remit of professional programmers. For a start it was much more complicated than programming for DOS , and the tools required were expensive.

WHEN RICHARD TAFT HEADS TO WORK EACH MORNING, he follows a narrow stone path, winds his way past the tomatoes, and unlocks the glass door to his Washington, D.C., office 15 feet behind his home. During the 30-second commute, he’s transformed from a dad dealing with the demands of two tots into a marketing, communications, and fund-raising consultant, managing dozens of subcontractors hired to promote the Smithsonian Institution’s new National Museum of the American Indian.

“I’m a very disciplined person who can tune everything out as soon as I shut that door,” he says, pointing to the office entrance through which a six-foot totem pole peers from its garden post.…

In the months surrounding COMDEX/Fall, held in November 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada, a number of vendors jumped on the removable storage bandwagon. The key advantage of removable storage devices, as touted by the vendors themselves as well as users, lies in their portability. Unlike bulky towers, jukeboxes, and other storage configurations, removable solutions are easily transported and accessed from multiple sources. The latest removable devices are also claiming remarkable storage capacities of up to 120MB, true mobility with sizes measuring as little as 2×2 inches, and maximum data transfer rates of up to 290KB/sec.

Because portables have proven to be one of the fastest growing segments in the PC …

After spending a year sleeping on the couch or maybe years waking up to an angry spouse/partner over their lack of sleep you’ve decided you need to do something about that snoring habit of yours.

You’ve reviewed your lifestyle and tried to make changes as recommended by a doctor. Maybe you’ve lost some weight, started exercising, quit smoking and drinking but you still snore. You’ve reviewed what causes you stress and you’ve done everything you can think of to remove or reduce your stressors but you still snore.

You’ve tried your best to do what you can to change and to stop snoring but you realize almost every morning when you’re met with glaring sleepless eyes that someone in your household is not getting the sleep they need to be able to function properly during their day.

Tim doesn’t remember when he started to feel depressed, but he remembers when he started to feel better. At first, he thought he was just “feeling down.” He was sleeping a lot, felt nobody liked him, and was tired all the time. But his parents became concerned when he didn’t get better. They knew he was depressed and arranged for him to see a psychotherapist.

After six months, Tim’s therapist suggested he try a medication called Prozac. That’s when Tim became one of a growing number of adolescents who take antidepressants. And for Tim, that’s when things started to get better.

You are sitting at your computer working on an important project, unbeknownst to you, your air conditioner has been leaking water inside your ceiling. Bubbles are forming above your head, and splash! Gallons of water pour down, soaking you and your computer. Ok, I know, this scenario is highly unlikely. Instead, maybe you are sipping a cool beverage while working on an important document, and your toddler walks up to show you their favorite toy, tipping your drink over and into your computer. The point I am trying to make is, hard drives and liquids don’t make good company.

The question now remains, is it possible to fix a hard drive that has been damaged by liquids? The sad new is this, it is entirely likely for you to lose all of your valuable files, pictures and documents stored on your hard drive due to water damage. Accidental spills aren’t always the culprit. It can happen from a variety of water soaked situations, for example, floods, tornados, hurricanes and fires.

The first step that needs to be understood in any of these situations is, time is of the essence. If your hard drive has been damaged by any liquid, you must get professional help as soon as possible in order to recover the important, if not priceless data stored on your hard drive. Once a hard drive has become wet, the damage can increase with time, exponentially. In essence, the longer you leave it wet, the worse it can become. See this article about recovering hard drives from water damage.

Borland International Inc. has begun alpha testing an object-oriented, Pascal-based visual development tool that it plans to launch by year’s end as an alternative to Visual Basic.

The tool, code-named VBK (Visual Basic Killer), is aimed at giving corporate developers a new tool to rapidly build applications and database front ends — a market in which Microsoft Corp.’s Visual Basic has thrived, said sources familiar with the software.

The tool supports Visual Basic VBX controls and features a notebook-style interface similar to Quattro Pro. A future version will include Borland’s database engine, sources said.

VBK works in much the same way as Visual Basic: Users create event-driven programs by

Just like the first mainframe computers, the first microcomputers had no language, either. They had too little memory to support any software, so they were programmed in machine language by setting front-panel switches. Micros that had no front panel (like the Southwest Technical Products M6800) were programmed in assembly language through the use of a monitor program contained in ROM. The monitor chip also had a mini-compiler to translate programs into machine language.

Once the thrill of having actually built a working computer wore off, the computer hobbyists wanted to do something with their machines. Soon 2K and 4K memory boards became available, and with them, the possibility of using

Application developers’ heads must spin as they decide which platforms to target. Should they write for DOS, where the vast majority of users remain? Should they write for Windows, where the growth seems to be? How about OS/2, with its wealth of slick APIs and multithreading capabilities? And then there’s the Macintosh … and Windows NT … and Unix …

As these decisions grow more complicated, vendors of development tools are simplifying choices by adding cross-platform support to their utilities.

C++ is where the action is in development tools, and 1992 saw a number of important product releases, especially with respect to cross-platform support.

The good news about DVD is that, like the atomic what-sit that Ralph Meeker can’t contain in the 1955 Robert Aldrich film of Mickey Spillane’s Kiss Me Deadly, DVD’s future range of applications won’t be contained. NO, not by the digital straitjacket in which the Hollywood studios and consumer electronics manufacturers have been trying to bind it. Or maybe not. As a business, DVD may indeed remain lashed to its movie-centric control model, and even more so in the Divx model, with its movie-as-rental object strategy. Is Divx ready to pile DVD with the roadside detritus that is heaped atop the other failed formats of yore: Betamax, quadraphonic stereo, and …